Teshik-Tash

a cave in the Baisuntau Mountains, in Surkhandar’ia Oblast, Uzbek SSR. In 1938–39 the Soviet archaeologist A. P. Okladnikov discovered in the cave a habitation site of the Mousterian culture and excavated the skull and several bones of a Neanderthal child eight or nine years old. The burial was surrounded by ibex horns embedded in the ground.

The skull from Teshik-Tash has a large capacity (1,490 cu cm), a brow ridge, and a prominent nose. In the cultural layers extending to 1.5 m, finds included the bones of an ibex, a wild horse, a bear, and a deer. Many stone articles were found, including side-scrapers and disk-shaped cores. The inhabitants of Teshik-Tash, who lived during the pretribal stage of society, were engaged mainly in hunting.